Frequently pictured holding a “Trump digs coal” placard, the incoming president has also promised to revive his country’s coal industry and push through highly controversial oil and gas pipeline schemes, including the Keystone XLand trans-Dakota projects.

“Climate change policy is going to come to a screeching halt”, Robert McNally, an energy adviser to former president George W. Bush, told the Wall Street Journal. “The Paris Agreement, from a US perspective, is a dead agreement walking.”

Yet though there is little doubt that the Trump victory is bad news for the battle against global warming, the new US administration faces a formidable task in undoing climate change legislation and regulations.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement could take up to four years. Trump’s climate plans envisage the possibility that the agreement could, in the first instance, be renegotiated. This too would involve possibly years of talks between the nearly 200 countries concerned.

Sanctions call

Two years ago the US signed a climate agreement with Chinaunder which both countries pledged to make radical cutbacks in their emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. China might not be willing to enter into new negotiations.

There have also been warnings that reneging on Paris could adversely influence other international agreements and negotiations. The Trump victory has been much talked about at the COP 22 meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.

Alden Meyer from the Union of Concerned Scientists told a COP news conference: “If the US pulls out of this, and is seen as going as a rogue nation on climate change, that will have implications for everything else on President Trump’s agenda when he wants to deal with foreign leaders. And I think he will soon come to understand that.”

The president-elect made many promises during his election campaign, from building a wall along the Mexican border to putting Hillary Clinton, his opponent, in jail, doing away with the US’s multi-trillion dollar debt, and creating many millions of jobs.

It’s seen as highly unlikely that all the president-elect’s pledges will be fulfilled. The optimists hope Trump’s climate plans, with their promises of tearing up vital agreements and legislation on global warming, will also come to nothing. – Climate News Network

Journalist training materials

Categories

About our funders

The Climate News Network is supported by the Ashden Trust, the JJ Charitable Trust and the Mark Leonard Trust - three of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. This support assures the Network’s continuation while we seek the means to ensure its long-term sustainability.